WCU recreational therapy students help children with autism experience the fun of fly fishing

One clear, cool afternoon in mid-November, on the banks of Cullowhee Creek on the Western Carolina University campus, a small-scale fishing derby was under way.

Three boys, working with WCU recreational therapy students Shawn Chapman and Megan Hunt, took turns fly fishing for trout in the creek’s quick, shallow waters across from the Ramsey Regional Activity Center. From the grassy banks, the boys’ moms, dads, siblings and friends offered encouragement.

“Oh, I hope they catch one,” said an anxious Dana Frady, mother to Dillon, 12, one of the fishermen and a sixthgrader at Cullowhee Valley School.

The giant drilling machine owned by Quality Drilling of St. Paris Ohio bored into the clay cap of the old Dillsboro landfill probing for more landfill gas to supply the increasing needs of artisans at Jackson County’s Green Energy Park.

Supervised by Paul Dow, project engineer for Altamont Environmental of Asheville, this was only the first time that extensive excavation has been done at the landfill since the original dozen or so gas wells were drilled into the landfill in 2005.

“We’re drilling four new landfill gas extraction wells to a depth of 70 feet. We’ll also install the well heads and the tieins to the extraction system” said Dow as he checked a sample of of the trash detritus that had been brought up to the surface for the first time in over a decade.

Great Smoky Mountains National Park officials have notified the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation that the “experimental” status of the park’s restored elk herd has been officially lifted, clearing the way for permanent management of elk in and around the park.

RMEF is the largest financier of the park’s 10-year elk restoration project, with more than $800,000 in contributions.

Kim Delozier, RMEF conservation program manager, said, “This is important because it’s a formal federal declaration that our elk restoration efforts in the North Carolina section of the park have been deemed a success.”

Honey bees throughout North America and Canada are continuing to disappear at an alarmingly rapid rate, signaling a dire threat to the production of countless food sources.

Albert Einstein first famously speculated that “if the bee disappeared off the surface of the globe, man would have only four years to live.” Although Einstein’s claims were often considered outrageous, the plight of the honey bees has become a documented problem threatening much of the economy’s natural resources.